Apple grabs 60% of touch panel capacity, hurting supply for others

Apple has an internal goal of shipping 40 million iPad products this year. To manufacture all of them, the company has occupied close to 60% of the global touch panel capacity, according to sources from upstream component makers for tablets cited by DigiTimes.

Touch panels are thus suffering the most serious shortage, which has hurt supply for Apple's competitors since the component shortage means shipment volumes are unable to keep up with orders, especially for second-tier players. Apple is holding control over the capacity of major touch panel makers such as Wintek and TPK.

RIM, Motorola, and HP are also competing for related components, leaving out second-tier players. As a result, Samsung Electronics, Acer, and HP have all started turning to smaller touch screen suppliers such as Sintek Photronic, Egalax-empia Technology, AimCore Technology, and J Touch.

Apple's iPad 2 entered production earlier this month. There are no details as to when the new version of the device might be hitting store shelves or what the pricing will be.

The company hasn't even announced the device yet. In the meantime, it is still selling the original iPad. In this respect, Samsung has beat Apple to the punch by announcing the successor to the original Galaxy Tab: the Galaxy Tab 10.1.